HYBE’s impressive perks are putting their employee salaries in the spotlight.
LE SSERAFIM, a group under HYBE’s subsidiary Source Music, recently gave fans a glimpse into their lives on MBC’s Point of Omniscient Interfere. But the real star of the episode was HYBE itself. The cameras focused on their massive headquarters, boasting 7 underground floors, 19 above-ground floors, and a whopping 60,000 square meters of space.
LE SSERAFIM and their managers toured viewers through various spaces available to both artists and employees. These included an in-house clinic with medical professionals, a room with comfy capsule beds for napping, a movie theater-style screening room, a fully equipped hair and makeup salon, a gym with free weights and cardio equipment, and even a cafeteria serving healthy meals for just 2,000 won. But what truly sets HYBE apart are its unique benefits. They offer a manager rotation system to prevent burnout, a bonus program to encourage employees to use their vacation time, a dedicated app for booking in-house facilities, and even personalized conditioning trainers for artists on tour – things that are not seen in most entertainment companies.
HYBE is also known for its top-notch employee benefits. They offer a free-seating system so everyone can choose their work environment, and flexible working hours with dedicated focus time to boost productivity. Plus, they help employees recharge with a rooftop cafe called “HYBE Pritz” and a beautiful birch forest garden for relaxation. There is also a company-wide vacation once a year for a week, announced well in advance to encourage everyone to take a break.
Employees are also well-compensated, with some of the highest salaries in the entertainment industry. As of the first half of last year, HYBE had 675 employees, with a total annual salary of 42.136 billion won ($31.6 million). This breaks down to an average of 63 million won ($47,000) per employee, with men earning an average of 82 million won ($61,000) and women earning an average of 54 million won ($40,500). Furthermore, HYBE is the top payer among the four major entertainment companies, HYBE, SM, JYP and YG Entertainment, and their average salary is a significant 75% higher than the lowest-paying company, YG Entertainment, where employees earn an average of 36 million won ($27,000) per year.
The number of high-income earners was also the highest. Looking at the same period, HYBE had five employees earning over 500 million won ($375,000) annually. This includes CEO Park Ji Won and some retired executives: CCO Lee Jin Hyung, HTS President Kim Dong Jun, CFO Lee Kyung Jun, and CLO Jeong Jin Soo. For comparison, JYP Entertainment had three high earners: CEO Jung Wook, CCO Park Jin Young, and CFO Bae Sang Bong. SM Entertainment had two: CAO Lee Sung Soo and COO Tak Young Joon. YG Entertainment had just one, Executive Producer Yang Hyun Suk.
The salary increase rate for the same period was also 8.6% compared to the same period of the previous year. This is higher than the average salary increase rate of 5.7% for office workers surveyed by JobKorea at the beginning of this year and the second highest among competitors. The company with the highest increase in employee salaries was JYP Entertainment with a 21.8% increase, likely fueled by a 99% rise in sales and a 101.1% increase in operating profit. In contrast, both SM Entertainment and YG Entertainment saw salary decreases during the same period, with drops of 7.1% and 23.4% respectively.
Despite the impressive benefits and high salaries, HYBE’s average employee tenure is the lowest among the four major entertainment companies. Clocking in at 2 years and 3 months, it falls behind JYP Entertainment (4 years and 1 month), SM Entertainment (4 years), and YG Entertainment (3 years and 8 months). However, it’s important to consider that HYBE is a relatively young company compared to its competitors. While the average tenure across the four companies decreased by 2.4% to 10.2% in the first half of the previous year, HYBE actually saw an increase of 9.5% in its average employee tenure during the same period. This suggests that even though their current average tenure is lower, they are experiencing positive growth in employee retention.
In relation to this, a HYBE official explained, “As the company has grown, we have over 1,000 new employees who joined in the last 3 years. This could be why the average tenure appears to be low.”
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